Stepping Away to See the Future
It’s been over two years since I last wrote this newsletter. During that time, I faced something I never imagined: a health crisis that took away my ability to think, feel, and function as I had my entire life. For nearly two years, I had to navigate uncertainty I couldn’t solve — and it changed me profoundly.
For those who may not know my background or career journey, I have been driven by a fundamental question:
What makes us who we are — and what helps us move forward or holds us back?
This curiosity to decode the why behind the what and its impact on other people, organizations, markets and industries led me to a career as a marketing researcher, brand strategist, executive, and then as a consultant and podcaster.
Over time, that curiosity expanded into studying how careers were evolving. I began noticing a broader shift — in the leaders I interviewed, in the organizations I advised, and in my own journey. Career paths were becoming non-linear. Success was being redefined. Fulfillment and identity were rising in importance relative to money and title.
I wrote Building the Business of You during the pandemic to articulate that shift: a human-centered view of the future of work grounded in adaptability, self-awareness, strategic-planning, and alignment.
But I didn’t want it to remain a thesis. So after the book, I conducted original research — What Workers Want — to better understand the connection between career goals, life goals, and what actually enables people to reach their potential.
I was studying momentum.
And then, unexpectedly, I lost my own.
Blindsided
Change is constant. Uncertainty is the new uncertainty.
That’s an adage that I promoted and believed I navigated well — until I really didn’t.
I was blindsided by an unexpected health crisis in early 2024 when my body and mind began to quickly unravel. At first, I assumed it was perimenopause. But the symptoms escalated rapidly and nothing worked to resolve it. My sleep disappeared, memory faded, and my cognitive processing slowed, then stalled.
My emotions flattened, then spiraled.
This wasn’t the kind of uncertainty I had studied and spoken about. This was minute-by-minute disorientation.
I moved from specialist to specialist, tried medication after medication, and even explored alternative treatments. Some did nothing, while others made things worse. No one had answers.
That’s when I learned the difference between navigating uncertainty and living with it behind the wheel.
Eventually, I had to step away from most of the life I knew.
Losing My Compass
I’ve always prided myself on being a problem solver. Diagnose. Plan. Act. But this was different because I couldn’t rely on any of my innate and learned skills. They were quickly fading away.
During that first year, I began to suspect that I had Long Covid. Reading stories of patients with debilitating, unexplained symptoms mirrored my experience. Then, in December 2024, I definitively contracted Covid and my condition worsened dramatically.
What followed is hard to describe. Along with losing my sense of taste, and smell I also couldn’t access intuition, feel emotional connection, or read the subtle cues of the people I loved. My body didn’t feel like mine. My mind raced with fear and doubt faster than I could contain it. I pushed people away even when I wanted comfort. My physical, emotional, and mental systems were completely misaligned.
There was no compass to guide me forward because there was no needle in my compass. Being fluid was futile because it required feeling, sensing — those very human traits that I never realized were so core to surviving and thriving until they were gone.
I felt out of control and unrecognizable to myself.
Becoming Someone I (and Others) Didn’t Know
My mind became my enemy. I catastrophized every situation while also worrying endlessly about everything and anything.
I felt inadequate, powerless, and like an imposter. I moved slowly, behaved meekly, and couldn’t engage in a back-and-forth conversation with friends or family.
All the relationships, degrees, titles, and career milestones I had worked for suddenly felt irrelevant. They couldn’t restore connection, clarity, agency, or identity.
I realized that when my human capacities were compromised, everything shifted.
I withdrew. Not because I didn’t care, but because I didn’t know how to exist in that state.
The Abyss — and What Pulled Me Through
The hardest part was not knowing if my symptoms and suffering would end. “Acceptance” was the advice I heard quite a bit: Learn to let go. Stop fighting it.
What I eventually realized is that recovery didn’t come from mindset hacks or intellectual reframing. Believe me, I tried everything! When your mind is compromised, those tools aren’t remotely accessible.
As a result, acceptance feels impossible.
What carried me wasn’t grit or a desire to never give up because frankly, at times, I definitely did.
What gave me hope was people.
My husband believed I would recover. Friends kept checking in. Professionals kept exploring options. Together, they offered a small but mighty sense of promise. This village refused to let me disappear.
When I couldn’t hold hope for myself, they held it for me. Climbing out of that abyss wasn’t about individual resilience. It was about connection.
Emerging With a Deeper Understanding
After two agonizing years, clarity returned. Emotion returned. A sense of self returned. And with it came perspective.
This experience didn’t contradict my work on the future of work. Rather, it confirmed what I always believed and even expanded it.
I now understand in a far more visceral way that the future of work isn’t primarily about technology, productivity systems, or optimization.
It’s about biology. Psychology. Connection. Identity.
It’s about what makes us human, and how fragile and powerful that humanity truly is.
Tammy Gooler Loeb, my family, and friends modeled something I will never forget: resilience is relational. Meaning is relational. Recovery, and particularly growth, are relational.
We are not meant to navigate careers, crises, life… alone.
Welcome Back
As we relaunch The Human Side of Work, Tammy and I are returning with renewed purpose. Meaningful careers are built from the inside out. When we understand what’s truly blocking us, we can reframe uncertainty into possibility.
Because what everyone ultimately wants is to feel happy, fulfilled, and whole.
The future of work is human.
I’m deeply grateful to be back, and we look forward to sharing insights that help you align who you are, what you do, and why it matters—so you can find clarity, fuel fulfillment, and lead with intention.